The Department of Agriculture has clarified the reasons as to why nearly 3,000 farmers have not yet received their 85% GLAS payment.

As has been the case in recent weeks, the department is continuing to review on a case-by-case basis to resolve the individual issues in each instance. As each individual case is cleared it is paid.

Yesterday, the Department of Agriculture announced that 354 more farmers were paid under GLAS 1 and 2.

The combined total paid to these farmers stood at over €1.25m, which equates to an average payment of €3,534.

“The department is continuing to contact applicants to inform them of the reasons payment has not been made,” a spokesperson said.

To receive clearance, the department representative said, all GLAS applications must pass regulatory controls and validations as is the case with all EU co-funded schemes.

These schemes are subject to cross checks with other databases in the department, including the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS).

Examples of issues leading to delayed payments are as follows:
  • Declaration of an incompatible parcel usage for GLAS action chosen.
  • Changes in parcel boundaries on which a GLAS action is chosen, including splitting or merging of parcels.
  • An applicant no longer claiming a parcel on BPS 2016.
  • Incomplete documentation, such as incorrect information on a Low-Emission Slurry declaration.
  • Incomplete interim commonage management plans.
  • Incompatible data and parcel history on department databases.

The payment of the remaining 15% of the 2016 payment will commence once all required GLAS inspections have been completed – as required by EU regulations – and are currently scheduled to be processed in mid June, the spokesperson added.

Problems with BPS applications

In a statement, the department also confirmed that a further 800 cases have now had their GLAS 3 applications finalised and will have access to BPS 2017 applications this week.

In addition, the remaining 200 cases will also have BPS 2017 opened up to them this week (without GLAS details).